| (2003-09-22) The British High Commission and Other Adventures Thursday, as I mentioned in my last entry, was a party at The British High Commission. I'm not exactly sure what the British High Commission does, but they did have a damn nice place overlooking the ocean. We were served free alcohol, and each one of us volunteers had to stand up in front of a group of about 50 and say our names and where we were from and why we came to The Gambia. Really, it was an excuse to get dressed up and have too much to drink. These are a couple of fellow volunteers. The one in the middle is Angela, who takes on my accent. She and I make each other laugh like mad, and I get along best with her. She's the one I jumped into the pool with all of my clothes on with. Best ever.
Charlotte, Angela, and myself. Still relitively sober.
And then, something went horribly wrong and I look... slightly drunk. This was after the party, of course.
** On Friday, I was supposed to move into my house. Little did I know that the repairs to my house were not made, but they expected me to move in anyway. It's a disaster. The floors are trashed, there are cockroaches everywhere, the doors don't shut properly, the window screens have holes in them (please! give me malaria!)... the list goes on. So, for the meantime, I'm back in the hotel. This picture was taken outside of my compound:
** On Saturday night, we took a bush taxi to a restaurant off the beaten track. I had a dead cockroach fried with my dinner, but besides that, it was a great evening. After eating, the locals put on a show for us (sadly, the pictures didn't turn out- all too dark), and there was lots of drumming, chanting and dancing. It was really powerful. These people can dance like... it's totally indescribable. And that's when it hit me. I'm in Africa. Three weeks after my arrival, reality suddenly set in, and I realized how different it is here, and how much I'll never fit into the culture, no matter how hard I try. Being here is like looking through a window. I'm able to see everything around me, but I'm never quite immersed... I'll never be brought fully into the culture, never be able to experience life here, because I'm never going to be able to blend in. But that's okay. I'm going to enjoy my time here regardless. But fuck me, I'm in Africa.
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